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Summary

This poster was produced by German artist Martin Kippenberger on the occasion of an exhibition of his and Albert Oehlen’s works, which took place at the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin in August 1991. From 1990 onwards Kippenberger worked more frequently with other artists on the production of his posters. The initial sketch for this design was made by the American artist Donald Baechler (born 1956).

Though prolific as a painter, sculptor, musician and writer, the 178 posters created by Kippenberger throughout his career form a significant body of work. Normally created as screen prints or lithographs in standard advertisement sizes, they were used to promote a wide variety of events from art exhibitions to upcoming parties. From 1986 Kippenberger began to group his posters into folios, though these were united more by date than by similarity of style or function. This work forms part of the artist’s fifth and final folio called Pop It Out. Published in 1994 in an edition of seventeen, each folio contained thirty-one posters made between 1990 and 1994.

Kippenberger’s posters belong to the mass of apparently supplementary material produced by the artist throughout his career that parallels his work in painting, sculpture, installation and performance. However, like his books, pamphlets and literary and musical projects, the posters share with his more conventional artworks the desire to undermine the accepted structures of the art world by defying attempts to understand his artistic output as a whole, by blatantly embracing collaboration, and by actively involving himself in the promotion and reception of his work. As the artist Jutta Koether wrote on the occasion of the 2006 Kippenberger exhibition at Tate Modern:

Martin’s posters best represent him and sum up the range of his ability: the humour, the social critique, the clever combination of provocative images and allusions. They were critical and politicised, perfectly expressing his ideas and his personality.